On eve of global trade talks, African leaders seek fair terms

NAIROBI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization
must do more to support large-scale agriculture in Africa and
develop a new, global approach to domestic farm subsidies,
African leaders said on Monday, the day before the world body's
meets in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

At the first ministerial meeting of the trade body in
sub-Saharan Africa, African leaders say, they hope to find ways
to level the playing field as they seek a bigger role in global
trade and increase profits from the raw materials they produce.

The Geneva-based WTO has been trying and largely failing to
agree on a worldwide package of trade reforms since a meeting in
Doha in 2001 hatched an ambitious plan for knocking down trade
barriers. Its 162 members meet from Tuesday to Friday in
Nairobi.

"Many of the developing countries, including Liberia, have
been making the point that it is time to support agriculture,"
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters in an
interview, saying Liberia needed technology and investment.

One of the world's poorest countries, Liberia spent much of
the last two years battling the Ebola crisis that killed 4,800
people.

Sirleaf also said African countries must continue to push
for reducing subsidies by wealthy countries for cotton
production and other areas of farming. Such support made it
impossible for developing nations to compete, she said.

Observers say it would be politically impossible for most
Western countries to make those concessions, which are hugely
popular in the nations that have them.

"We hope - I'm not sure that I can say with confidence it
will happen - that the reduction in subsides for farmers in
developed countries will take place," she said.

Although talks will be held in Africa, the topics will cover
global trade issues that include pledges of trade assistance for
poor nations. Liberia and Afghanistan will also be formally
welcomed to the group.

The biggest winners from a global trade deal would be the
world's least-developed countries, most of whom are excluded
from regional trade talks going on elsewhere, such as the
U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a speech on Monday
that African countries had do more to industrialise their
economies but should not be put at a disadvantage by high
tariffs or other controls imposed by wealthier nations.

"African economies producing competitively should not be
halted with defensive trade remedies," Kenyatta said. "Standards
should not be the next frontier of protectionism."
(Additional reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Edmund Blair,
Larry King)